By Canadian Press

Latest round in northern Manitoba hunt for B.C. murder suspects proves fruitless

Jul 30, 2019 | 8:48 AM

YORK LANDING, Man. — The chief of a remote northern Manitoba Indigenous community says a massive police manhunt there for two young British Columbia homicide suspects has ended without success, although residents have been asked to remain vigilant.

Leroy Constant says in a Facebook post that an extensive search Monday in and around York Landing, backed up by dogs, helicopters, drones, a police boat patrol and a military Hercules aircraft, failed to locate Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod.

Constant says the RCMP’s emergency response team has returned to Gillam, 90 kilometres northeast of York Landing, where the last confirmed sightings of the teens occurred a week ago.

He says the Mounties’ major crime unit has also left, while 10 officers who remained in York Landing overnight were to leave by ferry Tuesday morning.

Members of the Bear Clan Patrol, an Indigenous-led neighbourhood watch group, remain and Constant says police have asked residents to report any information or tips that could help in their search.

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The York Landing search was triggered by a tip from the Bear Clan Patrol that two men matching the descriptions of the 18-year-old Schmegelsky and his 19-year-old companion had been seen rummaging through the local garbage dump.

York Landing is only accessible by air or a two-hour ferry crossing in the summer. There’s also a rail line that runs 25 kilometres south of the community.

Constant had said he would be surprised if the pair made it to his community on foot because the northern terrain is treacherous.

Schmegelsky and McLeod had previously been spotted in Split Lake, a community about 170 kilometres west of Gillam.

The duo are charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia professor Leonard Dyck.

They are also suspects in the fatal shootings of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, whose bodies were found on the Alaska Highway in northern B.C.

The Canadian Press